Terrifying Tales

Most of the comments I've seen about this collection of 3 short films have been negative, and I'm a little surprised. No, this isn't a masterful collection, but there is quite a bit on offer for the curious viewer, as long as one's expectations aren't unrealistic.

Part of the problem lies in the packaging...2 of the 3 tales are at least as much sci-fi as they are horror, so the title and standard horror fare cover art on the VHS box aren't the best indicator as to the true contents.

As mentioned in other reviews, the films are 3 UCLA graduate projects from the mid 1980s, each with their own individual opening and closing credits.

The first film, "Ten Seconds To Countdown" is the most effective. Equal parts thriller and eerie sci-fi headgame, it is a tale of a young woman fleeing her controlling father, only to meet up with a more cosmic threat. In what is obviously a low budget effort, there is a genuinely creepy and surreal atmosphere that is very effective. Even though many would characterize the pacing as slow, I'd say that the term "deliberate" would be more apt. There are some inconsistencies, but they add to the surreal element of the tale and do not detract. I thought this was a really excellent segment.

The second feature, "Final Destination: Unknown" is a more predictable tale of murder and justice, but is still effective, and again, there are some unusual and imaginative moments that transcend the low budget production values.

The final segment, "Creatures Of Habit", is more of a crime drama meets character study that even being the weakest of the 3 shorts, still manages to reasonably entertain within a sort of strange neo-noir setting.

For those not expecting your typical horror fare, there is a lot to enjoy here. The performances are decent, and there is more going on here than in many by numbers Hollywood mega budget productions. Not on DVD as far as I know, but if you can get a VHS copy for $10 or under, you can do much worse.

This is a collection of three films, all student films I think, each with their own opening and closing credits. The title Terrifying Tales has been added to the beginning, and there are no end credits for the whole.

The first segment starts off pretty well. It's night, and a young woman kisses a younger boy who is sleeping, possibly her brother. She looks at a photo of a man in uniform. She sneaks away as a bug exterminator's van pulls up, and then the next morning as she enters a roadside diner she sees the van again. She enlists the help of a man playing pool to get away from the van her father is driving. He puts on his jacket that has a NASA patch on it, and they speed off in his station wagon. He remains completely silent, and he drives recklessly fast. In summarizing, I'll jump to the end. Given that he has a NASA patch, and the title is "10 Seconds to Countdown," it will come as no surprise that they wind up in a spaceship. More surprising that there is a dying, crying primate of some kind in there. I confess I have no idea what was going on in the ending scene or what to make of the ending. This segment was copyright 1986.

In the second segment "Final Destination: Unknown," a woman picks up a male hitchhiker, who strangles her. He accepts a ride from a man, and is invited to his house for chili. The man puts some men's headshot photos into a file near his computer. He calls his daughter down for chili, and we think: oh no, maybe no one will come to dinner, for could the hitchhiker have killed his daughter? Well - yes and no, because his daughter does come down for dinner. The ending is pretty predictable. This one wasn't too bad. Copyright 1989.

In the last segment, two men show up at what is evidently a crime scene. They pick up a bloody knife in an alley and seem to put it back down. They enter a room and look around, and wake up a woman there. One of the men leaves, the other stays and wants to help the hooker he woke up. She had witnessed the murder, or the murdered person was or roommate, or perhaps there was no murder at all. The man who stays, the coroner, even stays the night, and a perhaps retarded man, possibly one-armed man, named Charlie enters talking about potatoes. The coroner thinks Charlie did the murder, and meanwhile by staying with the hooker, the coroner's wife is getting upset. Charlie is possibly AWOL, though what the military would be doing with him in its ranks, I can't imagine. I don't think the murder (if there was one?) is solved at the end, but there is an autopsy to do. Can't say I understood this one either. Copyright 1986, though it looked much older to me.